Results 1 to 10 of 11
-
12-07-2018, 23:58 #1
- Join Date
- Dec 2011
- Location
- Pretoria
- Age
- 67
- Posts
- 765
Only one country has ever built nuclear weapons and then destroyed them
“South Africa's apartheid government built nuclear weapons in the 1970's because they were worried about Soviet expansion into Africa. In the 90's, President F W de Klerk dismantled them. Why did South Africa get rid of its nuclear weapons?”
-
13-07-2018, 15:14 #2
- Join Date
- Apr 2014
- Location
- Western Cape, Cape Town
- Age
- 41
- Posts
- 2,476
Re: Only one country has ever built nuclear weapons and then destroyed them
Good short doccie.
Some answers they raise.
Program was run nationwide, but mostly around Stellenbosch, Houwtec and Pelindaba.
South Africa used large part if not most of the highly enriched uranium up to 2010 at Pelindaba to become the world leader in the production of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) for medical use.
Also had a ICBM program going in the 80's under the guise of a satellite program, successfully developed and tested a 2 stage rocket with the final 3 stage rocket very far along in the development stage but program to miniaturize the nuclear program never came of the ground.
-
13-07-2018, 19:33 #3
- Join Date
- Dec 2017
- Location
- the 011
- Posts
- 83
Re: Only one country has ever built nuclear weapons and then destroyed them
AFAIK one of the ICBMs is at the Swartkopz AFB in the museum.
if you ask nicely you can go see the Houwtec facility ( and the cleanrooms )
When we went there it felt like walking back in time going into a lab that looked like they decided to get up, put a plastic sheet over their desks and left it all as it was ( CRT screens, yellowing -beige keyboards, all covered in a plastic drop sheet )
had a lecturer in Stellenbosch who used to work with the program in reactor research ( Nuclear engineering ) - he has a thing for coal powered trucks.. interesting guy.
-
13-07-2018, 21:51 #4
- Join Date
- Jul 2008
- Location
- Brits, North West
- Age
- 50
- Posts
- 3,258
Re: Only one country has ever built nuclear weapons and then destroyed them
Yeah, as far as I know, six nukes were produced. Five were dismantled. The sixth? Vela incident comes to mind....
-
15-07-2018, 22:51 #5
- Join Date
- Aug 2012
- Posts
- 82
-
16-07-2018, 10:27 #6
- Join Date
- Dec 2009
- Location
- JHB
- Age
- 41
- Posts
- 2,991
They were never ICBMS, more like SRBM in a similar class to the SCUD-D. seems to have been a Jericho copy.
On the question of our nukes, they were devices. I doubt they could have been of much actual use considering the only delivery method we had was buccaneers for a long time.
I initially wanted to do my dissertation on the apartheid military-industrial complex, but my supervisor declined my request for safety reasons.
-
16-07-2018, 10:29 #7
- Join Date
- Dec 2009
- Location
- JHB
- Age
- 41
- Posts
- 2,991
-
16-07-2018, 12:25 #8
- Join Date
- Oct 2015
- Location
- Port Elizabeth
- Age
- 42
- Posts
- 116
Re: Only one country has ever built nuclear weapons and then destroyed them
There is two books out that deals with the project the one by A.J. Venter which is not bad but does not go into detail. The second book is written by an ex scientest that worked on the project and he was able to access the archives. https://www.warbooks.co.za/products/...wielligh-steyn This book goes into a lot of detail.
-
16-07-2018, 13:02 #9
- Join Date
- Dec 2009
- Location
- JHB
- Age
- 41
- Posts
- 2,991
-
16-07-2018, 13:19 #10
- Join Date
- Apr 2014
- Location
- Western Cape, Cape Town
- Age
- 41
- Posts
- 2,476
Re: Only one country has ever built nuclear weapons and then destroyed them
Yes, I think the RSA-2 would be classed as medium range missile.
Called it ICBM program because the eventual goal was the RSA-4 an enlarged version of the 3 stage RSA-3
On the nuclear bombs, they probably only ever served as small scale MAD type scenario, where they would be dropped on Namibian or South African soil in case of a large scale overrunning push by Angolan, Cuban and Soviet forces.
Bookmarks